Hike in excise duty to make products costlier

Beauty creams, hair oil, shampoos and other household items will witness increase in prices, with FMCG firms on Friday saying that the excise duty hike announced in the Budget will add to cost.

"The two per cent hike in excise duty and increase in minimum alternate tax (MAT) from 15-18 per cent, will lead to price increase as input prices will go up and could fuel inflation to some extent," Godrej Consumer Products' managing director Dalip Sehgal said.

Similarly, Emami also said the hike in excise duty will increase the input costs like packaging and raw materials.

"While the impact of increase in duty on crude petroleum and petro products are yet to be ascertained, however, if the oil refining companies pass it on the consumers, then the prices of FMCG items might increase," Emami group of companies' director Aditya Agarwal said.

- PTI (New Delhi)

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